57 The Last Portal

Chapter 57 The Last Portal As luck would have it," said Nerys as she crawled beneath the low branches to the door, "I'd already done a lot of work to make sure your father would not get his hands on the pencil, even though I didn't yet know that the pencil existed. "What do you mean?" asked Peanut. "Long before you arrived in Chroma, I was aware that the Resistance were trying to break Gary out of the Spire. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I ordered my most trusted RAZER, 67, to pretend to go rogue and join the Resistance. Together, we decided that 67 would break your father out of jail and lead him to one of the disused cleaning stations in Modernia. That way, Gary would think he was free,

第57章 “说来也巧，”内瑞斯爬过低矮树枝走到门边时说道，“哪怕我当初还不知道那支铅笔真的存在，我也早就做好了诸多准备，确保你父亲拿不到它。 “你这话是什么意思？”花生问道。 “早在你来到克罗马之前，我就知道反抗军打算把加里救出尖塔。 所以我决定亲自出手解决这件事。 我派我最信任的雷泽——67号，假装叛变投靠了反抗军。 我们商量好，由67把你父亲救出监狱，再把他引到摩登尼亚一处废弃的清洁站去。 这样一来，加里就会以为自己已经自由了

but really, we would know exactly where he was at all times. It was perfect. "PERFECTLY EVIL!" shouted Gary, from the hatch. Peanut's eyes widened as Nerys turned the pencil around and started rubbing out the Green Valleys portal. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. She didn't want to give Nerys the satisfaction of knowing how frightened she was. Once that portal was erased, there was no way for her and her family to ever get back home. Not without Little Tail, at least. She decided to try to keep Nerys talking. "So if you already knew where he was," said Peanut, "why did you ask me about him on that video call?" "It's called subterfuge, lovely," Nerys sneered. Deception. Trickery. You should try it sometime. Anyway, when I found out that the pencil was real, the need to keep Gary away from it suddenly became my main priority. When I eventually got my hands on it after I stole it from you on the snowfields of the North Draw, I began to execute a new plan. The first part of this plan was to make you think that you knew Mr White's secret identity. I couldn't risk you guessing that he was actually me. So, I bought another hat just like mine for Mr Stone and convinced him to wear it whenever possible. It worked like a dream. I believe he turned up at your house wearing it that very evening.

但实际上，我们随时都能清楚掌握他的位置。 这个计划简直完美。 “太恶毒了！”加里从舱门里大吼道。 内瑞斯调转铅笔开始擦除绿谷传送门，花生惊得瞪大了双眼。 她深吸一口气，努力让自己平静下来。 她才不想让内瑞斯看出自己有多害怕，平白让她得意。 这个传送门一旦被擦掉，她和家人就再也回不了家了。 至少没有小尾巴铅笔，是绝对回不去的。 她决定想办法拖着内瑞斯一直说话。 “既然你早就知道他在哪了，”花生说，“那为什么上次视频通话你还要向我打听他？” “这叫谋略呀，亲爱的，”内瑞斯嗤笑一声， 就是欺骗。 就是诡计。 你真该好好学学。 总之，等我确认铅笔真的存在后，阻止加里拿到它立刻就成了我的头等大事。 后来我在北原雪地里从你手中偷到铅笔，我就开始执行新计划了。 这个计划第一步，就是让你以为自己猜对了怀特先生的真实身份。 我不能冒险让你猜到他其实就是我。 所以我给斯通先生买了一顶和我的一模一样的帽子，说服他不管什么时候都戴着。 这个办法奏效极了。 我记得他当晚就戴着那顶帽子去了你家呢

Peanut swallowed. She had to admit that she had been well and truly played by Nerys. "The next part of the plan was to start erasing the existing portals, one by one. And it was going perfectly until you stole the pencil back from me." She turned to face Peanut. "That was very naughty of you, young lady." "Sorry not sorry," she said as Nerys continued to rub out the Green Valleys portal. Peanut turned to look back into the control room. She noticed that Alan was secretly scrabbling around on the floor, pulling at something. What was he up to now? Could he possibly be trying to open the hatch and free Leo, Doodle and her parents? That's certainly what it looked like he was doing. Anyway, I realised that if I wanted to get the pencil back, I would have to exploit your biggest weakness. And what might that be?" asked Peanut, trying to buy a bit more time for whatever it was that Alan was up to. "Why, your biggest weakness is love, of course," said Nerys. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming to your mother's rescue if you thought Mr White had taken her hostage. That's why I persuaded Mr Stone to change the ballet reservations and take her to Milan instead of London. I knew you'd come after her. And, because I'd already made you think that Stone was White, I knew that you would try to take him, well, us, back to Chroma too. The whole aim,

花生咽了口唾沫。 她不得不承认，自己完完全全被内瑞斯耍了。 “计划的下一步，就是逐个擦除现有的传送门。 一切都进展得十分顺利，直到你把铅笔从我手里偷回去。” 她转过脸面向花生。 “小姑娘，你那么做可太调皮了哦。” “我才不道歉呢，”花生说，此时内瑞斯还在擦除绿谷传送门。 花生转头看向控制室里面。 她发现艾伦正偷偷在地上摸索，拽着什么东西。 他这是在做什么呢？ 他难不成是想打开舱门，救出里奥、杜德还有她的爸爸妈妈吗？ 至少看上去他确实是在做这件事。 反正，我清楚如果我想拿回铅笔，就必须利用你最大的弱点。 “那会是什么弱点呢？”花生问道，她想多拖点时间给艾伦做事。 “哎呀，你最大的弱点当然是爱呀，”内瑞斯说道。 “我知道，要是你以为怀特先生绑架了你妈妈，你肯定忍不住会过来救她。 所以我才劝说斯通先生改了芭蕾舞预约，带你妈妈去米兰，而不是伦敦。 我就知道你一定会追过来。 而且，我早就让你认定斯通就是怀特，我也清楚，你会想把他，哦不对，把我们也带回克罗马。 整个计划的核心目的，

right from the moment you stole back the pencil, was to get you to give it back to me. Ideally when we were in Chroma. And that's exactly what you did when we were "trapped" in the Rainbow Lake." Nerys finished rubbing out the door. Then she turned to face Peanut and smiled. Peanut gulped. "So, you see, lovely, everything happened this way because I engineered it. It was all designed and directed by my hand. You must admit, I am something of a genius, am I not?"

从你偷回铅笔的那一刻起，就是要让你亲手把铅笔送回我手里。 最好是在我们身处克罗马的时候拿到手。 而你也确实这么做了，就在我们“被困”彩虹湖的时候，把铅笔送来了。” 内瑞斯擦完了传送门。 接着她转过身面向花生，露出了笑容。 花生倒吸了一口凉气。 “所以你看呀亲爱的，所有这一切都是我精心安排的。 这一切全都是我亲手设计和操控的。 你总得承认，我算得上是个天才，对不对？”

"I'll admit no such thing," said Peanut, straining against the RAZER's gripping arms. "So now that you've destroyed all of the portals and you've got the pencil, what do you plan to do with it?" "Well, that's easy," replied Nerys, smiling. "I'm going to do what I should have done the last time I had it in my hands." "And what's that?" asked Peanut. Nerys held Little Tail up in front of her face. "I'm going to destroy it.

“我才不会承认，”花生一边说，一边挣扎着挣脱雷泽抓住她的胳膊。 “现在你已经毁掉了所有传送门，拿到了铅笔，你打算拿它做什么？” “哦，这太简单了，”内瑞斯笑着回答。 “我要做我上次拿到它的时候就该做的事。” “那是什么事？”花生问道。 内瑞斯把小尾巴铅笔举到自己面前。 “我要毁掉它。